engleski

Health-related behaviors and the experience of bullying: Parental views

Previous studies have highlighted a number of factors, conditions, and mediating processes that may significantly influence health related behaviors of children or adolescents, especially of school-aged children (e.g. Roberts et al., 2007). Among them, a number of research studies have tried to establish a link between unfavorable health outcomes and different aspects of bullying behaviors to clearly demonstrate that the phenomenon of bullying is associated with many adverse outcomes. Being bullied (‘victims’) or bullying others (‘bullies’) usually means more physical and psychological health complaints (e.g. Smith et al., 2003 ; Nansel et al., 2004). In the European project, "Health Behavior Study among School-Aged Children (HBSC) considerable attention has been directed to this relationship. In Croatia, there are research teams that actively participate in HSBC project, and in such a way contribute to increasing general knowledge on the health of school-aged children. The results of such activities can be found in extensive scientific research reports (e.g. Kuzman, Simetin, Franelić, 2004, 2008). However, the parental view of behaviors related to health, especially in the context of bullying is in some extent missing. Therefore, the main aim of this research was to review certain behaviors of school-aged children related to health from the perspective of children’s parents. As it is clear from numerous studies, parental involvement in children’s education has many desirable socialization, educational and health outcomes, and it is very important to consider a parental perspective and view on their children’s health behavior, especially in the context of possible bullying experiences. This study attempted to investigate how parents see their children's behavior related to health, and among these behaviors, which ones are recognized as the most frequent. Another aim was to investigate the possible differences in the frequency of certain behaviors related to health among groups of children who were or were not bullied and children who bullied or did not bully. Method The study was conducted in Croatia and involved 605 school-aged parents of children who attend different high schools. The questionnaire refers to a number of aspects related to the health behavior of their children. Further, parents were asked to report on how often their children complained about being bullied at school and how frequently their children bullied others. Children were classified into mutually exclusive categories as non- involved or involved in bullying others and being victims or not being victims at school. The investigation also collected diverse demographic characteristics of the child, parents and families and various indicators of family activities and processes, as well. Expected Outcomes The obtained results indicate clearly that parent’s awareness about the presence of some harmful behavior among their children was associated with health outcomes. According to the parents, inadequate physical activity and an unhealthy diet were the most evident behavior while consuming drugs or other intoxicants are least expressed as a present problem. The study showed a significant mediating effect of certain demographic characteristics of parents and the impact of individual family processes on children’s behavior related to health. Parental views differ in relation to certain behaviors of school-aged children who were bullied or were not bullied at school - primarily in behavior related to food, physical activity and general health status. On the other hand, children who bullied others are seen by their own parents as children who smoke and drink alcohol more and eat unhealthy, as well. The implications of these findings on youth policy and needed interventions are further discussed. References Due, P., Holstein, B.E, Lynch, J, et al. (2005). Bullying and symptoms among school-aged children: international comparative cross sectional study in 28 countries, European Journal of Public Health, 15:28–32. Kuzman, M., Pavić Šimetin, I., Pejnović Franelić, I. (2008). HBSC (Health Behaviour in School-aged Children) (Ponašanje u vezi sa zdravljem u djece školske dobi 2005/2006, Rezultati istraživanja), Zagreb: Hrvatski zavod za javno zdravstvo. Kuzman, M., Pejnović Franelić, I., Šimetin Pavić, I. (2004). Ponašanje u vezi sa zdravljem u djece školske dobi 2001/2002. Zagreb: Hrvatski zavod za javno zdravstvo. Nansel, T.R., Craig, W., Overpeck M.D., Saluja G., Ruan W.J. (2004). Crossnational consistency in the relationship between bullying behaviors and psychosocial adjustment. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 158:730–736. Roberts, C., Currie, C., Samdal, O., Currie, D., Smith, R., Maes, L. (2007). Measuring the health and health behaviours of adolescents through crossnational survey research: recent developments in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, Journal of Public Health, 15:179–86. Smith, P.K., Morita, Y., Junger-Tas, J., Olweus, D., Catalano, R., Slee, P. (2003) . (Eds). The nature of school bullying. A cross-national perspective. London, New York: Routledge

health-related behaviors ; bullying ; parents

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